Overstepping Boundaries
by CrystalLotus98
Summary: "Good one, Conscience. Me loving Chell, hah." He held his glasses up to the light, inspecting the lenses for any smudges or dust. There weren't any. " Comedy gold you've got there."


**It's been a while since I wrote Chelley, hasn't it? I should write more, it is my claim to fame and a lot of people like my Chelley stories. **  
><strong>Anyway, I wanted to see if I could still write Wheatley after so long (I still love that little blue ball to death) and thus this story was born. First formal introduction of Conscience Core as well, and probably her only one depending on how I feel. <strong>  
><strong>Anyway, hope you all enjoy~<strong>

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><p>For the most part, Wheatley didn't interact much with the other humanized cores within the newly established Aperture Labs, being assigned as a test monitor after he had set several things on fire (it wasn't his fault!) and breaking at least two pieces of expensive-looking equipment (they expected him to get used to such a tall, lanky and strange body that easily? Not bloody likely), so being confronted by one was... odd to say the least. Even odder was the fact that he was confronted by Conscience Core, a timid little AI who never seemed to look at anyone in the eye and always ran her hands over the sandy blonde braid tossed over her shoulder.<p>

"Sooo... what did you want to talk about?" Wheatley inquired after a few minutes of awkward silence and adjusting his weight in the chair he was sitting in- hopefully this didn't take too long, Chell was waiting on him. Conscience flicked her gaze up to him, she had rather unsettling eyes. Being an earlier model, her eyes were made to more closely resemble the optic of her old body; purple irises with a barely-there darker purple pupil with very light purple eye whites. Creepy eyes aside Wheatley shifted uneasily under her gaze and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Are you, um, are you gonna say something or are you just gonna stare at me? Not gonna lie, you're kinda creepin' me out, luv." He let out a uneasy laugh. Conscience's eyes jumped to the left, towards a fake potted plant before she stood up straight, smoothing out her skirt and adjusting the glass half-sphere on her bow tie.

"I've been watching you with that woman..."

"Chell. Her name is Chell."

"Right, Chell. Anyway..." Conscience looked down at the floor, running her hands over her braid uncertainly. "Don't you think you're getting a little... close to her?"

"Well, I don't have much of a choice but to get close to her," Wheatley shrugged. "We are sharing a flat." His expression turned sour as he propped his elbow on one of the arms of the chair, putting his chin in his palm. "Don't tell me Rick asked you to complain about that for him." The red-haired core stuck his tongue out like he had just tasted something foul. Conscience shook her head,

"No. No he didn't. It's just that... you _do_ realize that she's human, right?"

"Why? Didn't anyone tell you the difference between humanized cores and humans? Well, if you ask me, their internal workings are rather disgusting. And don't even get me started on their gene-"

"No! No, no, no! I know about all that!" Conscience nearly shouted, looking directly at the other core with wide eyes and a horrified expression on her face. Wheatley let out a sigh a relief, his entire body slouching from the action,

"Thank God..." Honestly, Wheatley had no idea how the human genitalia worked, nor did he have any compelling urge to ever find out. He wasn't going to let her know that, though. "So, what's the problem?" Conscience bit her lip, looking everywhere else but at Wheatley before she said,

"I mean... don't you think you're getting too close to that wo- _Chell_ on a personal level?"

"I'm not following. Sorry. Could you be more concise, please?"

"Don't you think that you're, um... falling in love with her?" There was silence between the two cores for a painfully long five minutes. Someplace, somewhere, he heard Space Core wailing about wanting to go back to Space (the lab boys were _still_ trying to fix whatever had fried his mind so badly). Wheatley laughed lightly, awkward disjointed sounds as he took off his glasses and wiped the lenses on the hem of his suit jacket.

"Good one, Conscience. Me loving Chell, hah." He held his glasses up to the light, inspecting the lenses for any smudges or dust. There weren't any. " Comedy gold you've got there." Wheatley finished, his voice trailing off more than he had intended it to.

"I'm being serious here." Conscience snapped -as much as she _could_ snap- "I... don't have the capacity for love. But you Alpha Cores do. You can feel and understand emotions like love, correct?" The red-head frowned as he replaced his glasses on his nose, sure his emotional simulator was far more advanced than Conscience's was. He was able to feel joy, sorrow, anger, fear, sadness, regret, fury... insanity... but love? How was he supposed to know what _that_ felt like? His internal searches on the emotion always came up blank.

"Being in love with Chell, she says." Wheatley murmured, seemingly forgetting that Conscience was sitting in the chair right across from him. At the mention of her name, Chell's rarely shown smile came to his mind, making something flutter about happily in his chest. He rubbed at it lightly, that was new... had that always been there?

"At the very least," Conscience piped up, bringing the other humanized core's attention back to her. "It's dangerous for androids like us to become involved with humans; love or no." Her expression became forlorn as she placed her hands in her lap and twiddled her thumbs. "In half a century... more than half the people we know won't be here anymore. And statistics show that testers who are exposed to the gels only have twenty, maybe thirty more years before..."

"Well!" Wheatley interrupted, standing up and clapping his hands together. "This was a very lovely conversation. We should do this again sometime. Or not. It depends on what we're doing really. Anyway, goodnight." With that hasty goodbye Wheatley started down the hall towards the main entrance, Chell catching sight of him, a annoyed expression coming to her face as she held up and tapped a finger on her wrist. "I know, I know luv." The ginger began, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "It's late, you're probably tired. Let's get you back home, yeah?" Chell nodded and fell in step with Wheatley the taller of the two looking at the two intensely.

Being in love with Chell... only twenty to thirty more years... he wouldn't change at all during that time, would he? His vision suddenly became more gray when Chell met his gaze, an eyebrow raising and her mouth going into a confused line. "Ahah, it's nothing. Forget it." Wheatley requested with a wave of his hand. Chell looked at him for a few more seconds before shrugging and looking back to the road before them.


End file.
